old master should know how he fared, especially hear of his
success. His sentiments regarding Elsner reveal themselves
perhaps nowhere more strikingly than in an incidental remark
which escapes him when writing to his friend Woyciechowski.
Speaking of a new acquaintance he has made, he says, "He is a
great friend of Elsner's, which in my estimation means much." No
doubt Chopin looked up with more respect and thought himself more
indebted to Elsner than to Zywny; but that he had a good opinion
of both his masters is evident from his pithy reply to the
Viennese gentleman who told him that people were astonished at
his having learned all he knew at Warsaw: "From Messrs. Zywny and
Elsner even the greatest ass must learn something."



CHAPTER III



FREDERICK ENTERS THE WARSAW LYCEUM.--VARIOUS EDUCATIONAL
INFLUENCES.--HIS FATHER'S FRIENDS.--RISE OF ROMANTICISM IN POLISH
LITERATURE.--FREDERICK'S STAY AT SZAFARNIA DURING HIS FIRST
SCHOOL HOLIDAYS.--HIS TALENT FOR IMPROVISATION.--HIS DEVELOPMENT
AS A COMPOSER AND PIANIST.--HIS PUBLIC PERFORMANCES.--PUBLICATION
OF OP. I.--EARLY COMPOSITIONS.--HIS PIANOFORTE STYLE.



FREDERICK, who up to the age of fifteen was taught at home along
with his father's boarders, became in 1824 a pupil of the Warsaw